Bass trumpet, B-flat
Alternate name(s)
- Tenor Horn, B-flat
Date1900 ca.
Place MadeSweden, Europe
Place MadeSaxony, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedUnsignedMarkingsStamped on inner cover plates, valve caps, push rods and underside of touchpieces: 6 [or 9]
DescriptionBrass, German silver, double loop, bell front, tuning slide at narrow second bow (after valve section), three rotary valves (1, ½, 2), horseshoe stop, clock-spring return.
This bass trumpet (or bell-front tenor horn) was most likely used in a Swedish brass ensemble. The “Swedish fingering” with the third valve lowering the pitch by two whole tones was produced in Saxony for export to Sweden until the 1940s. In Sweden, tenor horns in kornett shape (meaning in bell-front configuration) were common in brass ensembles into the twentieth century, and the narrow bell flare is characteristic.
DimensionsHeight: 535 mm
Tube length: 2702 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slide, valve slides): 11.2 mm 11.1 mm, 12.5 mm, 12.5 mm
Mid-bore diameter: 13.5 mm
Bell diameter: 179 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1985 from Robert Hazen, Washington, D. C.
Published ReferencesSabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 3: Valves Evolve (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2017), pp. 193-196, 198-199, 306.
Sabine K. Klaus, "Bass trumpet or tenor horn in 9-foot B-flat," International Trumpet Guild Journal, January 2019, p. 43.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number06800
On View
Not on view
1900 ca.
1780 ca.
